This issue kind of fell by the wayside in all the WebM and Android violence, but apart from the cool things Google did this past week, they've also done something really bad. They claim it's a mistake, but the company has collected 600GB of data from open personal wireless networks in 33 countries through its Street View cars, prompting several countries to initiate official investigations into the search giant.

I think the storing of data seems to be my issue with this, but you might argue the point that you cannot view the data without storing it (mayhaps rabbit...)

For example:

Think of the data as a TV in someone’s house that you can see through a window where the curtains have not been drawn. The house could be the server/home pc and the window with drawn curtain could be the unprotected wifi.

I don't mind if a company/person could see my TV because it is viewable through a window and can tell the brand, size, shape, colour and what's showing.

What I am concerned about is that someone has 'accidentally' stumbled through the front door because I left it unlocked and stumbled out with my TV onto the street.

I don't mind that they have seen the TV (data), and have retained various bits of metadata about my TV. What I do mind is that they have stumbled onto the street with my TV - yes it was unprotected, door wide open even, but it is in my house. I stored that TV in my house, not in their hands on the street.

Do I have the right to call the authorities?

I know this is a simplistic point of view. Why did Google have the ability to collect the data, store it, but not have the ability to delete it straight away?

This is irresponsible. It is no good to shrug the shoulders. The news release advising the public of Google's mistake is PR, and it is desgined to start the trickle of slowly diffusing the situation. Google will state that they came clean about it - weak...

If this was a person who accidentally stole my television, he would be prosecuted.

Yes Google has seen and has knowledge of the data, but they have no right to store it.